Lessig vs. Valenti

January 24th, 2008 Richard

In 2001 Lawrence Lessig and the late Jack Valenti (then president of the motion picture association) carried out a series of debates on intellectual property and copyright laws. One of these debates was carried out at USC’s Annenberg School. A Video of the entire debate is available on their site. I created a shorter video (Quicktime | WMV) that consists of some excerpts from this video. The debate is interesting for a number of reasons, not the least of these is the oratory skills of both of these men. Of course, the other important points are the issues that are addressed: The tension between “stealing” from creators and the importance role of building on others’ work for innovation and creativity. The issue of whether a device/technique that can be used for illegal purposes should be illegal, even if there are reasonable legal uses for the device/tehnique. The issue of the “mickey mouse protection act”, and the fact that copyright laws are increasing the length of copyright in recent years at an exponential rate.

Posted in copyright, intellectual property, web and new media | No Comments »

Electoral Compass

January 16th, 2008 Richard

I learned of this electoral compass site via twitter with a post from my friend Charles Hope, a very bright guy, who is a co-founder of blip.tv.

It doesn’t take long to answer the questions and I turned out to be awfully strong in social liberalism and economically left. Below is a screen shot of my profile, also showing candidates. (Ok, actually I added the picture and my name – the site just shows the pencil.) I was closest to Barack Obama, though I was disappointed to see the site did not even include Dennis Kucinich, and my guess is that I would be closer to his views.

In any case, this is not a political blog, except as it relates to web issues, and, lord knows, I could not survive in the Ozarks at a technological university if I didn’t appreciate and get along with conservatives. However, I’m not secret about my views (this is America, damn it and mainly I thought the site was very well designed, functionally intuitive, and appears to do a good job of summarizing candidates views relative to mine.

Of course, the big question is, who created this site, and how much do I trust them to represent my views or the candidates? With a little effort (clicking on an obscure disclaimer button at the bottom of the page) I found that site isn’t even a US site, but is the work of a company called Kieskompas BV, located in the Netherlands. Further, they say that the data may be used for “scientific research” and may be published in “the media”, though I doubt seriously that this will involve any peer review, the cornerstone of academic scholarship and, of course, there is the other big question as to who they will sell these data too. Anyway, I thought it was a cool tool, though, of course, you must take these things with a grain of salt.

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The Machine is Using Us

January 16th, 2008 Richard

Eleven months ago, Mike Wesch, an Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University created a video called “Web 2.0 .. The Machine is Using Us” and posted it on YouTube. As I type, the video has been viewed more than 4 million times.

There are a number of interesting and provocative points about the web brought up in the video, but the thing that makes it so interesting (and popular) in my view, is the way he presents the information which, of course, supports his points, in that he is using the rich media and wide distribution enabled via the web.Some of the most interesting issues he touches on in the video are: the nonlinear nature of hypertext as relates to traditional linear text; the notion of separating content from form via xml/xhtml, and its implications; automated data exchange via xml, affording sharing of information among diverse sources; and, finally, the inherent social nature of the web.

Posted in web 2.0, web and new media, web-research, web-transformation | No Comments »

Survey on the Future of the Internet

January 15th, 2008 Richard

I just took this survey on the Future of the Internet, as part of the Pew Internet and American Life Project. I was not invited, but heard about it from the Association for Internet Researchers list serve. I recommend that you take the survey if you are an active web user. First, of course, you help a very worthy and interesting project. Second, the scenarios they present as possibilities for the future are very interesting and thought provoking. For example, will people, in general, become more tolerant as a result of reduced privacy? Will digital rights management, and the intellectual property laws, become even more draconian in the future, or will new economic models emerge? Apparently, the survey has been conducted previously, by polling many important stake holders, with some interesting results.

Posted in web and new media, web-research | No Comments »

Clue Train Manifesto

January 15th, 2008 Richard

The clue train manifesto; written by Chris Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger, to me, captures those things that are most promising and potentially transformative about the World Wide Web. It is a classic written about 1000 years ago in web years (1999), so, one interesting issue, is the extent to which the manifesto has served to predict the future. In some ways, I believe it is profound and prophetic. Of course many think it’s just a bunch of high-falutin’ mumbo-jumbo hype. Look over the 95 theses and see what you think.

Posted in web 2.0, web and new media, web-transformation | No Comments »